Abby Deschene is a curler on the move.

Actually, this winter in particular, there are several moves in store for the graduate of both Lockerby Composite and Laurentian University.

Though she has resided in Timmins for past three years, moving there for work, Deschene remains a familiar face around local curling clubs on weekends or as time permits.

A member of the Lauren Mann rink during the 2023-2024 season, the 23 year-old has connected this year with a team that is “a little geographically scattered”, as she explained with a laugh.

Skip Shelley Hardy, a veteran of the Newfoundland & Labrador Scotties Tournament of Hearts for some two decades or so, now calls Arnprior home. Third Stephanie Mumford, stationed in Sarnia, is a two-time medal winner at the World Curling Championships (2013 & 2014) as the fifth for the Rachel Homan rink.

Lead Stephanie Corrado (Hamilton) has multiple appearances at the Ontario Tournament of Hearts to her credit. With curling resumes of this stature on her new team, small wonder that Abby Deschene was ready to forego the position of skip where she has been seen more often than not in recent years.

“I really liked their goals and what they’re about – and I had been looking to move away from back end for a while now,” said the product of a curling family who helped her team to a bonspiel win at the Stroud Sleeman Cash Spiel last weekend.

“It aligns with what I was looking for.”

Deschene has enjoyed success at second over the course of her career, filling that slot with the Bella Crosier Laurentian Voyageurs’ foursome that claimed bronze at the U Sports Championships hosted in Sudbury in 2023 and also thriving in the front end of the Sydnie Stinson Lockerby rink that walked away with OFSAA gold in Fort Frances in 2018.

“It’s definitely a different view of shots and what shots you typically see in that position,” said Deschene. “There are a lot more hits at second position.”

Competing in their third bonspiel of the year, Team Hardy snuck in a few days of practice time in St Thomas, thirty minutes or so south of London, in preparation for Stroud – and also to cope with the realities of competitive curling life away from the larger centres in early fall.

“One of our biggest challenges right now is not all having ice locally at our home clubs leading into this event,” said Deschene, who welcomed the arrival of the 2024-2025 sheets at the McIntyre Curling Club in the past week or two. “We’re trying to build consistency in our deliveries despite a lack of practice at this point in the season.”

“With every event, we’ve gotten slightly better on our early season technical side.”

The Hardy quartet opened in Stroud by winning handily over the Dominique Jean crew from Montreal, but were bumped down to the “B” draw following a 6-4 loss to Katie Ford (Guelph). From there, the qualifying berth in quarter-final action was booked as a result of triumphs over both Jillian Uniacke and Lauren Mann.

An 8-2 victory over Heather Heggestad (Barrie) was the last of the comfortable margins for Hardy and company as their semi-final with Jo-Ann Rizzo of Mississauga went to an extra end (6-5), the same score by which the champs would prevail in the final over Chelsea Brandwood of Niagara Falls.

“We were happy that we were in every game,” stressed Deschene. “We lost one game on the last rock, but we were able to build on what we did in previous events.”

Deschene, Hardy and squad will join a number of teams with Sudbury connections at the Women’s Curling Stadium Tour in North Bay from November 8th to the 10th at the Granite Curling Club.

Also on the move last week were four curlers representing Laurentian University at the 2024 FISU Mixed Doubles Qualifier in Edmonton. The pairings of Mya Smith / Olivier Bonin-Ducharme and Piper Lehtimaki-Croisier / Ian Deschene came up short of advancing to the FISU Games in Torino (Italy) in January of 2025, but will now focus on OUA championships and beyond post-Christmas.

The 2025 OUA Women’s Curling Championships will be held in Sudbury as the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club welcomes teams from across the province to the region from January 31st to February 2nd, with a berth at nationals in Lethbridge (AB) on the line.

Still with curling in Sudbury, the Northern Credit Union Community Centre will be the site this weekend for the NCU Mixed Doubles Open as 18 teams gather to battle it out for a purse of $6200.

The local contingent will include the likes of Samantha Digiglio/Brendan Rajala, Valerie Ouimet/Luc Ouimet, Manon Paquette/David Daoust and Megan Smith/Doug Thomson (among others) – though the competition has a sprinkling of an international flavour.

The Japanese duo of Chiaki Matsumara and Yasumasa Tanida join Americans BriAnna Weldon and Sean Franey as the imports in the 2024 field.

Also on the go, beginning on Sunday, are the defending Women’s World Championship team of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes, currently in Alberta for the Pan-Continental Championships, remaining in province for the Canadian Open Slam in Nisku (AB) from November 5th to the 10th.